Director of Residence Randy Alexander expressed his concern Thursday at the Inter-Residence Hall Association meeting that IRHA acted too abruptly in passing a resolution against the department’s decision to cut funding to student security.

IRHA passed the resolution criticizing the department’s cut at its meeting before spring break, but IRHA President Ben Chamberlain vetoed it during break.

Chamberlain, senior in agricultural studies, agreed that IRHA may have been too abrupt in passing the resolution.

“I am glad I did the veto. There are points on both sides that needed to come out, and I think they were heard,” he said.

In a discussion that lasted more than three hours, IRHA debated the effectiveness of and need for the cuts with Alexander, resulting in a decision to table the resolution.

Alexander said the cuts are not a reflection of the department’s Master Plan or an attempt to make a profit.

“We continually reevaluate a lot of programs to see if there is a more efficient way to run them,” he said. “We would rather be more efficient than raise the amount you [as residents] have to pay.”

The current outline of the Department of Residence’s proposal will eliminate assistant supervisor and student supervisor positions from the Student Security Program. Those responsibilities will be assigned to hall directors.

Based on times with the most activity in the logs, Sunday through Wednesday patrolling will be cut to 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., down from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Patrolling on Thursday through Saturday will be cut to 10:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m., down from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The plan will assign the training of student security officers to the Department of Public Safety rather than the Residence Life staff.

“We are not the security experts; they are,” Alexander said.

Resident assistants also could be made responsible for locking doors at night; however, changes still are being made to the proposal.

According to information from the Department of Residence presented by Alexander, about 34 percent of infractions were reported by student security and 55 percent reported by resident assistants.

Part of the original proposal that would have reduced the number of guards on duty at a time from two to one has been thrown out.

“You have to match the level of security to the context,” he said. “The question we’re trying to answer is ‘What is the most appropriate balance between security and efficiency?'”

Alexander said department officials do not believe the cuts will endanger the safety of students.

“The changes that we are recommending, we don’t think they’re compromising student safety,” he said. “We are not able to guarantee there won’t be an incident, but we can’t guarantee that now.”

Alexander said educating students on personal security could be “more realistic than having two people cover one half million square feet.”

He also thinks students may have more influence on resident behavior than security officers.

“Residents of a building can defeat any security system you put in place,” Alexander said. “Your best security is the people in your community acting together.”

After meeting with Alexander, some IRHA members said discussing the issue with him was beneficial.

“I think we have made leaps and strides towards working better with the Department of Residence, having created a much friendlier communication environment,” said Jonathon Weaver, Knapp Hall representative. “Although I do not agree with the cuts that are being made, I do agree with the communication.”

Weaver, freshman in history, said IRHA may pass another resolution against the cuts, but he doubts that will change the department’s action.

“I think we can continue to build public support against the cut-backs,” he said.

Towers Residence Association President Eric Anderson agreed that another resolution is possible.

“It seems like a lot of people at IRHA are dissatisfied with the answers they are getting,” said Anderson, senior in computer engineering. “My personal opinion is that Randy seems to know what he is doing; we might as well let him do what he thinks is best.”